Children's health debate moves to Senate

[Mrs. Sharon B. Hodge]

Children's health debate moves to Senate
by Kevin Frekin


WASHINGTON – A key Senate committee voted Thursday to expand a children's health insurance program to cover an additional 4 million uninsured children. The vote comes one day after the House passed a similar measure.

The legislation to increase spending on the State Children's Health Insurance Program passed easily, 12-7, despite losing support from some Republicans who had worked closely with Democrats on the issue in 2007.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said he objected to giving states the option of covering children of legal immigrants through Medicaid and SCHIP. He also said the legislation failed to include provisions from two years ago designed to keep higher-income families out of the program.

All the Democratic lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee voted for the bill, which was sponsored by the committee's Democratic chairman, Max Baucus. They were joined by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.

Similar legislation passed the House Wednesday by an overwhelming margin, 289-139.

"Immigrants coming to this country and their sponsors have been required to sign a contract that they will not seek public assistance for the first five years they are in this country," Grassley said. "Today, the majority is determined to weaken that policy."

Baucus's bill increases spending on SCHIP by $31.5 billion. The bill did not include a provision to cover legal immigrants, but such an amendment offered by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., was approved by a 12-7 vote.

Current law requires a five-year waiting period before legal immigrants become eligible for coverage under Medicaid and SCHIP.

"I believe no lawfully present child in this country should be required to wait five years before they get health care," Rockefeller said.

But Republicans said that extending health coverage to newly arrived immigrants would encourage people to come to the United States for its government benefits.

"We are giving more incentives to folks to come to the United States not just to participate in the American dream, but to get on the government dole," said Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.

"That's a gloomy way to look at human nature," Rockefeller said.

All the Democrats on the committee supported Rockefeller's amendment. Snowe voted for it too. The amendment would add $1.3 billion in federal spending over five years.

About seven million people, the vast majority of them children, get health benefits through SCHIP. Democrats say the additional spending would allow about 4 million additional uninsured children to join the program.

The program is designed to provide health insurance to children in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance.

Republicans offered an amendment in the Finance Committee that would cap eligibility at three times the federal poverty level — $63,600 for a family of four. The amendment was rejected by a vote of 11-7. Baucus, in urging lawmakers to reject the amendment, said health care costs have risen in the past two years and some states, particularly those with a high cost of living, want to do more to help moderate-income families afford health coverage.

Republican lawmakers said they suspect Democrats have the votes needed to soon pass an expansion of SCHIP, despite GOP misgivings.

"Next week we will have a president who will sign the SCHIP legislation," Grassley said.

Democratic senators said the bill being considered in the Senate Finance Committee closely resembled legislation that came so close to passing in late 2007. President Bush twice vetoed SCHIP legislation that year.

"But then the American people spoke," Baucus said. "And now, with strong support from President-elect Obama, we will finally be able to respond."

In the House on Wednesday, 40 Republicans joined Democrats in passing a spending increase for the children's health program. The bill would raise the federal excise tax on cigarettes by 61 cents to $1-a-pack to pay for the SCHIP expansion. The bill before the Finance Committee also calls for the tobacco tax increase.

Obama said Wednesday he hoped the Senate acts with the "same sense of urgency so that it can be one of the first measures I sign into law when I am president."

"In this moment of crisis, ensuring that every child in America has access to affordable health care is not just good economic policy, but a moral obligation we hold as parents and citizens," he said.
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On the Net:

State Children's Health Insurance Program: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/home/schip.asp